While hill running has been a staple on the workout rotation for runners for decades, there actually hasn’t been much academic research on the training practice until relatively recently. A slew of new research over the last few years, however, has proven that, yes, hills really are worth the burn.
Improvements in VO2 Max, Heart Rate, and Race Performance
In a 2017 study published in the International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, a team of Ethiopian researchers investigated the effect of hill training on the performance and physiological fitness markers of competitive club-level middle and long distance runners who competed between 800m and 10,000m.
In the study, 32 athletes were divided randomly into a control group and experimental group. The control group was only given endurance training, while the experimental group was trained on…
